Oh Christmas tree

A handmade Christmas tree symbolizes the hopes of nurses, doctors and patients at the Losheng (Happy Life) Sanatorium

By Nancy Liu / Contributing reporter

“There is still more work to do,” Lin said, as he introduced the Christmas tree and other holiday festivities planned for the coming months. Of course, for residents the tree is just the beginning in a whole slew of events meant to ring in the festive season and a new year.

TREE OF LIFE

“I’m going to give out lots of gifts and cards for Christmas because I remember receiving lots of them from priests when I was a kid,” Wu Hsi-mei (吳西梅), a Losheng resident for more than 50 years, said happily.

Wu first arrived at the sanatorium as a teenager and has become so attached to the place that she stayed on. The 66-year-old vegetable vendor only has a minor deformity so she volunteers to look after others she calls “family members.”

Like other residents, whenever she walks past the tree, she stops and ponders the message that the recycled caps symbolize.

“This is life,” she said. “You can have a full life. It just depends on how you live it.”